8/10/2019 Reaching the Unreached - Challengesin Rural Sanitation

1/3

Reaching theUnreached Challenges in Rural Sanitationin India

Mr.A.K. SenguptaInternational Academy of Environmental Sanitation and

Public Health, RZ-L-5, 1st floor, Opp. Punjab NationalBank, Palam-Dabri Road, New Delhi -110045

1. Introduction:Open defecation is a traditional behavior in

rural India. This along with the relative neglect ofsanitation in terms of development priorities wasreflected in the country's low sanitation coverageat the close of the 1990s when it was found thatonly 30 rural households had access to a toilet(Census 2011). This fact, combined with lowawareness ofim,proved hygiene behavior, made theachievement of the goal of total sanitation apressing challenge in rural India.

Individual Health and hygiene is largelydependent on adequate availability of drinkingwater and proper sanitation. There is, therefore, adirect relationship between water, sanitation andhealth. Prevailing High Infant Mortality rate is alsolargely attributed to poor sanitation.

Sanitation is one of the basic determinants ofquality oflife and huml:j.n development index. Goodsanitary practices prevent contamination of waterand soil and thereby prevent diseases. The conceptof sanitation was, therefore, expanded to includepersonal hygiene, home sanitation, safe water,garbage disposal, excreta disposal and waste waterdisposal.

The responsibility for provision of sanitationfacilities in the country primarily rests with localgovernment bodies - Gram Panchayat in ruralareas. The state and Central Governments act asfacilitators, through enabling policies, budgetarysupport and capacity development. In the Centralgovernment, the Planning Commission, through theFive Year Plans, guides investment in the sectorby allocating funds for strategic priorities.

1.1 Global Scenario and Joint MonitoringProgramme (JMP) 2012:JMP is Joint Monitoring of Water and

Sanitation Programme initiated jointly by WHOand UNICEF. This is being done every two years.Progress in China and India is highlighted, sincethese two countries represent such a largeproportion of their regional populations. While

China has contributed to more than 95 per cent ofthe progress in Eastern Asia, the same is not truefor India in Southern Asia. Together, China andIndia contributed just under half of the globalprogress towards the MDG target in sanitation.

Eleven countries make up more than threequarters (76 per cent) of the global population

without improved sanitation facilities. One thirdofthe 2.5 billion people without improved sanitationlive in India. The majority of those practicing opendefecation (949 million) live in rural areas.

2 Government Initiatives:In 1986, the Rural Development Department

initiated India's first nation-wide program, theCentral Rural Sanitation Program (CRSP). CRSPfocused on provision of household pour flush toiletswith little accent on communication mechanism forbehavior change. This approach did little tomotivate and sustain high levels of sanitationcoverage. Despite an investment of more than Rs.6 billion, rural sanitation grew at just 1 per centannually throughout the 1990s and the Census of2001 found that only 22 per cent of rural householdshad access to a toilet.

With a less than satisfactory performance ofthe CRSP, Government of India restructured theprogram with the launch of the Total SanitationCampaign in 1999. TSC advocates a participatoryand demand driven approach, taking a district asa unit with significant involvement of GramPanchayats and local communities. Individualhousehold latrine coverage has more than tripled,from around 22 per cent in 2001 to 67 per cent inSeptember 2012 as per government records.

While the coverage reflected above appear tobe very impressive, there are issues linked like '

The figures above only reflect the number ofhouseholds/schools/Anganwadis that have atoilet and do not take into accc.mnt sanitaryconditions of the toilet or its usage.They do not consider sanitation more broadlye.g. by considering improved hygiene behaviorssuch as hand-washing with soap.Initial indications of an evaluation studyshows that around a quarter of householdlatrines are not being used (Planning Commi-ssion, Eleventh Plan Document, page 173).Field studies have pointed to lower levels oflatrine usage because of inadequate awarenessof the importance of sanitation, water scarcity,poor construction standards and the past

*Key note address presented in the National Seminar On Environmental Issues: Protection, Conservation& Management held at Visva Bharati, Shantiniketan on 22- 23 Nov 2013.

Volume2014-15. Number 1 . April2014 7

8/10/2019 Reaching the Unreached - Challengesin Rural Sanitation

2/3

emphasis on expensive standardized latrinedesigns. -

TSCs, convergence with the rural water supplyprograms and the National Rural Health Mission(NRHM) program is of utmost importance. Sinceschool sanitation and hygiene education is anintegral part of TSC, convergence is establishedwith Department of School Education and Literacy(DSEL) and the Sarv~ Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).Encourag~d by the success of the NGP, the TSC isbeing renamed as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA).The objective is to accelerate the sanitationcoverage in the rural areas so as to comprehensivelycover the rural community through renewedstrategies and saturation approach.

2. Issues in Achieving the SustainableSanitationcoverage:

2 Access:

Provision of sanitation and a cleanenvironment a~evital to improve the health of ourpeople, to reduce incidence of diseases and deaths.To address this challenge the internationalcommunity has pledged to halve the proportion ofpeople without access to safe drinking water andbasic sanitation facilities by 2015 as part of theMillennium Development Goals.

The Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) forWater Supply and Sanitation published by WHO/UNICEF (2012) report presents some strikingdisparities: the. gap between progress in providingaccess to drinking-water versus sanitation; thedivide between urban and rural populations interms of the services provided; differences in theway different regions are performing, bearing inmind that they started from different baselines; anddisparities between different socio-economic stratain society.

The census 2011 shows the coverage ofsanitation and water supply. The census reportshows that 49.8 of total 122.9 million householdsin India practice open defecation. While in ruralIndia the situation is still worse. 67.3 i.e. 113

million households practice open defecation.2.2 Poverty and disparities:

Under Ministry of Drinking Water andSanitation (MDWS) programme, an incentive isprovided only to Below Poverty Line householdsunder the scheme. While the incentive forIndividual Household Latrine (IHHL) has beenrevised from time to time and stands at Rs 3200/-(Rs. 3700/- for hilly and difficult areas) per IHHLconstructed and used by Below Poverty Line (BPL)household, including State share of Rs 1400/-. The

K Sengupta

BPL households are expected to find resources forthe remaining cost. Most assessments havecalculated IHHL cost at about Rs 18000/- with thesubstructure alone costing about Rs 5000/-. Thosewho are Above Poverty Line (APL) are expected tobe motivated through IEC to construct toilets ontheir own or through availing of credit facilities.

Apart from these incentives, it has now beendecided that sanitation programme activities canbe undertaken under MGNREGA in accordancewith these guidelines:a) Construction of IHHL as per instructions/

guidelines of Total Sanitation Campaignadministered by the MDWS.

b) Construction of Anganwadi Toilet unit andSchool Toilet as Institutional Projects.

c) Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM)works in proposed or completed Nirmal Grams.

While the policy of Government ofIndia underTSC has been to disburse incentives to the BPLhouseholds, considered the poorest in the ruralareas, poverty continues to be a curse and a barrierfor accelerating rural sanitation coverage. In astudy done by Centre for Media Studies (CMS),engaged by the Ministry in the year 2010, 41 ofthe respondents cited poverty as the reason for non-construction of toilets.

2.3 Community approach:The current allocations are restrictive towards

adoption of a community approach to sanitation. To

achieve the full goals of sanitation, communitysaturation approach cutting across the APL/BPL barrier is suggested for creation ofNirmal Grams.

The community is sensitized by creatingawareness about the impact of open defecation andlack of sanitation on health, dignity and securityespecially of women and children. In rural sanita-tion, encouraging cost-effective and appropriatetechnologies for ecologically safe and sustainablesanitation has been one of the main objectives ofthe approach.

2 4 Behaviour change:In addition to hardware issues, large scale

efforts are still needed to create and sustaincommunity demand for hygiene and sanitation. Thecapacity for behavior change programming, whichis decentralized under TSC, is also limited at thestate and local levels. Though the country has comea long way to break the traditional barrier and tabooassociated with toilets, open defecation in ruralareas continues to be a socially and culturallyaccepted traditional behavior at large, by both rich

Volume2014-15 . Number 1 . April2014

8/10/2019 Reaching the Unreached - Challengesin Rural Sanitation

3/3

A K Sengupta

and poor.

There is thus a need to systematicallyunderstand factors around effective behaviorchange and to support a comprehensive behaviorchange program with consistent strategy andmessages at the program level through detailedcommunication strategies coupled with sufficientfunding for Information, Education and Commu-nication (lEC) activities, At present, upto 5 ofProject outlay is reserved for IEC activities.

A limitation noted while achieving sanitationcoverage is that various field studies have pointedto various levels of latrine usage depending uponthe community awareness and also slippage in thestatus ofNGP villages that shows a variable trend.For example, in one such study undertaken byUNICEF in 2008, it was found that out ofthe 81of the population having access to sanitation inNGP panchayats, only 63 were using the facilities.

2.5 Septic Tank:Septic tanks are also a big problem in achie-

ving sustainable sanitation target. Majority of theseptic tanks had openings into open drains, whichdrained the liquid effluents from the septic tanks.This also leads to a high probability of ground watercontamination, as in many cases, the habitationdrains are not concrete ~tructures, and low soakageof the contaminated water iri the soil. Septic tankrequires more space. The construction needsregular technical assistance and supervision. Thisneeds ventilation, which adds to the cost. Deslud-ging of Septic tank is needed on regular basis. Thesludge and effluent from a septic tank cannot beused as a fertilizer straight away without causinghealth hazards. In some areas septic tank toiletsare within 10 meters distance from water sources.

However, people do demand for septic tanks,as most of the masons available in the rural areashave got some knowledge about constructing aseptic tank rather than any other safer designs.These people further motivate other villagers tobuild septic tanks.

2.6 Institutional framework with participa-tion of NGOs:As per TSC Guidelines, NGOs have an

important role in the implementation ofTSC in therural areas. They have to be actively involved inlEC (software) activities as well as in hardwareactivities. Their services are required to be utilized

not only for bringing about awareness among therural people for the need of rural sanitation butalso ensuring that they actually make use of thesanitary latrines. NGOs can also open and operateProduction Centers and Rural Sanitary Marts.NGOs may also be engaged to conduct base linesurveys and PRAs specifically to determine keybehaviors and perceptions regarding sanitation,hygiene, water use, O&M, etc.

It is now recognized that programmesimpacting social practices require greaterinvolvement of civil society and its organizations.Local Self Help Groups, women's organizations,

youth associations and NGOs of repute can playamajor role in programme implementation. NGOscan contribute immensely in ensuringsustain ability of Open Defecation Free (ODF)status and monitoring apart from demandgeneration, resource mobilization and capacitybuilding of stakeholders. Appropriate mechanismsneed to be built for them to be encouraged to engagein the sanitation sector.

3. Conclusion:To achieve sustainable sanitation coverage in

Rural India is a big challenge faced by theGovernment of India. Despite initiatives taken bythe Government of India, the sanitation coverageis very low as per the Census 2011. There are manycauses behind the low sanitation coverage and someof them are discussed in many studies like accessto facilities, poverty and disparities, behaviortowards sanitation, caste based distribution oftoilets, dysfunctional toilets and Operation andMaintenance etc. However, one ofthe main reasonsis dysfunctional toilets because of which people donot want to use them.

. POWER CONTROLS. PUMPINGSTATION PIPELINE SECURITY FIREFIGHTINGSYSTEM. INDUSTRIALONSTRUCTIONCIVIL INSTRUMENTATION MAINTENANCE/UTILITYERVICEPlease Contact.--.-. _~I'.

I ll 'Il II l.-- -.-. i i \ i H=P1'Ul1l1 --'..----

23E, Fern Road, Kolkata-700019. Phone: 033-2460-3689,2460-3155. Telefax: 033-2440-2739E-mail: ulogdeta1 @ysnl.net, ulogdeta@ysnl.net. Website: www.logicnodes.in

Volume2014-15. Number 1 . April2014 9